If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
M,I.5,P ersecution ' Ber nard Levin expr esses his vie ws
The article of which part is reproduced below. was penned by Bernard Levin for the Features section of the Times on 21. September 1991. To my mind, it described the situation at the time and in particular a. recent meeting with a. friend, during which I for the first time admitted to someone other than my GP that I had been subjected to a conspiracy of harassment. over the previous. year and a half. There is a madman running loose. about London, called David Campbell; I have no reason to believe that he is violent, but he should. certainly be approached with caution. You. may know him by the curious glitter in his eyes and a persistent trembling of his hands; if. that does not suffice, you will find him attempting to thrust no fewer than 48 books into. your arms, all hardbacks, with a promise that, if you should return to. the same meeting-place next year,. he will heave another 80 at you. If, by now,. the police have arrived and are keeping a close watch on him, you may feel sufficiently. emboldened to examine the books. The jackets are a model of uncluttered typography,. elegantly and simply laid out; there is an unobtrusive colophon of a rising sun, probably. not picked at random. Gaining confidence - the lunatic. is smiling by now, and the policemen, who know about. such things, have significantly removed their helmets - you could do worse than take the jacket off the. first book in the pile. The only word possible to. describe the binding is sumptuous; real cloth in a glorious shade of dark. green, with the title and author in black and gold on the. spine. Look at it more. closely; your eyes do not deceive you - it truly does have real top-bands and tail-bands, in. yellow, and, for good measure, a silk marker ribbon in a lighter green. The paper is. cream-wove and acid-free, and the. book is sewn, not glued. Throughout the encounter,. I should have mentioned, our loony has been chattering away, although what. he is trying to say is almost impossible to understand; after a. time, however, he becomes sufficiently coherent to make clear that he is trying to sell the books to you. Well, now, such. quality in bookmaking. today can only be for collectors' limited editions at a fearsome price -. #30, #40, #50? No, no, he. says, the glitter more powerful than ever and the trembling of his hands. rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no, no - the books are priced variously. at #7, #8 or #9, with the top price #12. At this, the policemen understandably put their helmets back. on; one of them. draws his truncheon and the other can be heard summoning reinforcements on his walkie-talkie.. The madman bursts into tears, and swears it is. all true. And it. is. David Campbell has acquired the entire rights to the whole. of the Everyman's. Library, which died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago, and he proposes. to start it all over again - 48 volumes this September and 80 more next year, in editions I have described, at. the prices. specified. He proposes to launch his amazing venture simultaneously in Britain and. the United States, with the massive firepower of Random Century at his back in this country,. and the dashing cavalry of Knopf across the water, and no one who loves. literature and courage will forbear to. cheer. At the time this article. was written I had believed for some time that columnists in. the Times and other journalists had been making references to my situation. Nothing unusual about. this you may think, plenty of people have the same sort of ideas and obviously the. papers aren't writing about them, so why should my beliefs not be as false. as those of others? What makes. this article so extraordinary is that three or four days immediately preceding its publication, I had a meeting. with a friend, during the course of which we discussed. the media persecution, and in particular that by Times columnists. It seemed. to me, reading the article by Levin in Saturday’s paper, that he. was describing in some detail his "artist’s impression" of that meeting. Most telling. are the final sentences, when he writes, "The madman bursts into tears,. and swears it is all true. And. it is." Although I did not "burst into tears" (he seems to be using a bit of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did try. hard to convince my friend that it was. all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin, because,. of course, it is. At the beginning of the piece Levin reveals a fear. of being attacked by the "irrational" subject of his story, saying "I have no reason to. believe that he is violent, but he should certainly be approached with caution".. This goes back to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence" against. a "threat" which was seen at the very beginning. of the harassment. The impression of a "madman running loose" who needs. to be controlled through an agency which assigns to itself. the mantle of the "police" is also one which had been expressed. elsewhere. In the final paragraph. of this extract, his reference to Everyman’s Library as having "died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago". shows clearly what sort of conclusion they wish to. their campaign. They want a permanent solution, and. as they are prevented from achieving that solution directly, they waste significant resources on methods. which have been repeatedly shown to be ineffective for such. a purpose. 6279 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
M I-5 Pe rsecution Berna rd Levin expresses his vi ews | [email protected] | Networking | 0 | January 1st 08 12:30 PM |
M I`5 P ersecution , wh o knows about i t? | [email protected] | Improving Performance | 0 | January 1st 08 11:55 AM |